I have to produce a dynamically generated T-SQL script that inserts records into various tables. I've done a bunch of searching and testing but can't seem to find the path I'm looking for.
I know that the following is valid SQL:
INSERT INTO [MyTable] ( [Col1], [Col2], [Col3] )
SELECT N'Val1', N'Val2', N'Val3';
But, is it at all possible to write something akin to this:
INSERT INTO [MyTable]
SELECT [Col1] = N'Val1', [Col2] = N'Val2', [Col3] = N'Val3';
By having the columns in the select statement, I'm able to do it all at once vs writing 2 separate lines. Obviously my idea doesn't work, I'm trying to figure out whether something similar is possible or I need to stick with the first one.
Much appreciated.
Best practice for insert statements is to specify the columns list in the insert clause, and for very good reasons:
It's far more readable. You know exactly what value goes into what column.
You don't have to provide values to nullable \ default valued columns.
You're not bound to the order of the columns in the table.
In case a column is added to the table, your insert statement might not break (It will if the newly added column is not nullable and doesn't have a default value).
In some cases, SQL Server demands you specify the columns list explicitly, like when identity_insert is set to on.
And in any case, the column names or aliases in the select clause of the insert...select statement does not have any effect as to what target columns the value column should go to. values are directed to target based only on their location in the statement.
I needed basic help on how to combine columns into one new column in the same table. I have done the below as a SELECT command and it works fine. I just don't know how to add it to the table permanently so that it becomes part of the table.
SELECT *, concat(z41, z42, z43, z44) AS option_3,
concat(z411, z412, z413, z421, z422, z423, z431, z432, z433, z434, z444,z443, z442, z441) AS option_4,
concat(z4211, z4212, z4213, z4214, z4215, z4311, z4312, z4313, z4314, z4431, z4432, z4433, z4434, z4421, z4422, z4423, z4424, z4425, z4426) AS option_5
FROM combined_full
Like others have mentioned, you are probably better off using a view. But if you really need this computed data in column then you can do this:
ALTER TABLE combined_full ADD COLUMN option_3 varchar,
ADD COLUMN option_4 varchar,
ADD COLUMN option_5 varchar;
UPDATE combined_full
SET option_3 = concat(z41, z42, z43, z44),
option_4 = concat(z411, z412, z413, z421, z422, z423, z431, z432, z433, z434, z444,z443, z442, z441),
option_5 = concat(z4211, z4212, z4213, z4214, z4215, z4311, z4312, z4313, z4314, z4431, z4432, z4433, z4434, z4421, z4422, z4423, z4424, z4425, z4426);
When adding new rows to the table, you should either also enter values for these three new columns, or create an insert trigger so that the values are automatically calculated as you do above.
"so that it becomes part of the table" - you can't. Unfortunately Postgres (as of 9.6) has no (persisted) computed columns.
If the expression is not very expensive to calculate and you don't need an index on it, I would suggest to create a view that contains the expression.
Given the example in your question, this should be good enough in your case as concatenating values isn't really that expensive.
If you really think you need to persist the calculation of the expression because e.g. you want to create an index on that or you constantly use that expression in a where clause, you will need to add a regular column to the table and a trigger that updates the expression when a row is inserted or updated.
I have a table. I wrote a function in plpgsql that inserts a row into this table:
INSERT INTO simpleTalbe (name,money) values('momo',1000) ;
This table has serial field called id. I want in the function after I insert the row to know the id that the new row received.
I thought to use:
select nextval('serial');
before the insert, is there a better solution?
Use the RETURNING clause. You need to save the result somewhere inside PL/pgSQL - with an appended INTO ..
INSERT INTO simpleTalbe (name,money) values('momo',1000)
RETURNING id
INTO _my_id_variable;
_my_id_variable must have been declared with a matching data type.
Related:
PostgreSQL next value of the sequences?
Depending on what you plan to do with it, there is often a better solution with pure SQL. Examples:
Combining INSERT statements in a data-modifying CTE with a CASE expression
PostgreSQL multi INSERT...RETURNING with multiple columns
select nextval('serial'); would not do what you want; nextval() actually increments the sequence, and then the INSERT would increment it again. (Also, 'serial' is not the name of the sequence your serial column uses.)
#Erwin's answer (INSERT ... RETURNING) is the best answer, as the syntax was introduced specifically for this situation, but you could also do a
SELECT currval('simpletalbe_id_seq') INTO ...
any time after your INSERT to retrieve the current value of the sequence. (Note the sequence name format tablename_columnname_seq for the automatically-defined sequence backing the serial column.)
I basically have a void function that creates a tuple on a existing table. Now at the end of the function I want display the table with the updated tuple. I am running it problems when trying to do this.
This is the statement I am using:
EXECUTE 'SELECT * FROM table WHERE IDNo = idnumber';
-- (idnumber is a variable that is assigned a value in the function)
I get the following error:
ERROR: column "idnumber" does not exist.
Can someone please help me find a solution.
For the actual query, you would want to do something like this:
execute 'select * from table where IDNo = $1' using idnumber;
With the key being the $1 and the USING clause to interpolate the variable.
That should resolve the column error regarding idnumber.
However, I'm not quite sure what you mean by:
display the table with the updated tuple
Do you mean you want to return all the rows in the table including the newly added row? Or just the newly added row? or something else?
Edit in response to comment from OP:
The substitution variables, e.g. $1, $2, $3... are scoped (i.e. unique) to each separate execute statement. So if you had two statements, the first with 3 variables, the second with three, you could use $1, $2, $3 in each and they would refer to the variables mentioned in the USING clause for that individual statement.
See the Postgres Basic Statements doc, specifically the section entitled 40.5.4. Executing Dynamic Commands, for more detail.
Second edit in response to display comments from OP:
When executeing statements, they won't output the way, say, a select statement would if you were doing it within psql or pgadmin. Rather, you have a couple different options, depending on what you ultimately want to do.
First, you could use an INTO clause to put the result into a record (although how you do this depends on whether it's just one row or many rows).
You would need to declare it in that case in the declaration section something like this: foo RECORD;
And then add INTO foo before the USING clause. If it complains about more than one record, you could add LIMIT 1 clause at the end of the query.
You could then do whatever else you wanted to with that record, including RAISE NOTICE with interpolating the record's columns, which would print it to the console.
If you want the entire table, and you want it to "display" more like psql or similar would (that is, return the rows obtained), you would want to have the function return a setof a specific type.
So it may then look something like this:
create function get_table() returns setof table as $$
execute 'select * from table where IDNo = $1' using idnumber;
$$ language 'plpgsql';
Where table is the name of the table you want. If you just want to return the existing rows of the table, this sort of query should work. It would then "display" in a client (e.g. psql, etc.) as the result set.
If you want to modify that (say, by dynamically adding some columns), then you would need to define that new type specifically, and then use that as the type being returned.
See the Postgres Wiki for more details. The wiki content is pretty old (Postgres 7.x vintage), but it generally still applies.
I want to update an XML column in DB2 with dynamic values or you can say with values that I'll pick from another table and insert them in the xml column.
I know how to insert a node along with its value that we provide by
hard coding it, e.g.
<data>some_value</data>
I want to do it in the following way:
UPDATE my_table SET my_table_column = XMLQuery(..... <data>???</data>)
WHERE my_table_id = other_table_id;
Where I place ??? I need a kind of select statement here which will come up with actual value for the node.